In order to hold a viewer’s attention, violence punctuates thrillers earlier and earlier in the movies today. In that way, The Drop is old school: violence is nowhere to be found until halfway through the film. Relying on slow simmering tension to escalate to a rousing climax, The Drop smartly relies on the talents of Tom Hardy, who anchors the film with an uneasy naiveté. Hardy continues to prove he is one of the most talented actors working today; I could spend an hour or two just watching him play with a dog in a park.
Uncle Marv’s is a drop bar for the Brooklyn mob. A drop bar basically houses all of the dirty money gangsters generate until the bosses can pick it up. Bob (Hardy) is the bartender at Uncle Marv’s (James Gandolfini), named after Bob’s uncle. Bob leads a simple life tending the bar – until he happens upon a bloody dog in Nadia’s (Noomi Rapace) garbage can. Nadia and Bob clean up and care for the dog together. However, Nadia’s ex and the dog owner, Eric (Mattias Schoenaerts) enters the picture, and starts harassing Bob publicly (by threatening to take back the dog) and privately (by robbing the bar), eventually leading to a showdown on Super Bowl Sunday.
The Drop walks the boring line with its lengthy running time. Compared to contemporary film, nothing really happens until the middle of the movie. The lengthy silent showdowns slowly bubble the tension and unease. By internalizing the conflicts, the explosion factor grows exponentially: waiting for a character to snap is just as compelling as watching one snap. Little twitches become magnified, leaving the audience on the edge of their seat. At times, mostly because of poorly edited subplots, The Drop will lose its tension, but overall, as long as the story revolves around the four principals each scene builds upon one another to a very compelling third act.
The conclusion is easily the most polarizing part of The Drop. The downfall of the slow-boil is that something truly amazing is needed to reward the audience patience. In The Drop’s case, there are multiple changes and twists in the story. Some of the payoffs are pretty good, particularly Bob’s story. However, some of the conclusions undercut what happens beforehand or appear superfluous to the central story. Overall, the payoffs are middling and left me feeling cheated by The Drop.
Tom Hardy continues to be underappreciated in terms of his acting talent. Much like his role in Locke earlier this year, Hardy dials down his charisma to play a simple Brooklyn man who clearly is hiding something behind his calm demeanor. As more heinous threats get thrown at him, Hardy will flash a facial tick that unmasks his feelings, but then quickly goes back to stone exterior. In addition, Hardy has a way of delivering lines to generate some much needed comedic relief at his simplicity. Flanking Hardy is James Gandolfini in his last film role. Gandolfini shows the flashes of his great talent here, exuding pride and hurt simultaneously. His scenes with Hardy ripple with tension and power. Noomi Rapace is nice enough being courted by Hardy; the one big scene she has to nail in the third act, she does. Matthias Schoenaerts is menacing and unhinged in a controlled way as Eric: scenes involving him and Hardy are the best in the film. Ann Dowd and John Ortiz have subplots that waste their talents. I’d like to see what was cut from their sections.
The Drop is a solid throwback thriller. Much like its setting, it feels like time has passed it by, but it can still deliver from time to time. The Drop did give us a view into something great though: Tom Hardy needs a TV show about his character and his adventures tending a bar in Brooklyn and caring for a dog. Watching Hardy explain shoveling to someone or play fetch with Rocco the pit bull is downright compelling.